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BigFix vs Symantec Endpoint Security Complete comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
4.6
Cortex XDR offers high ROI with reduced costs, improved efficiency, affordable pricing, and enhanced security features compared to competitors.
Sentiment score
4.1
BigFix quickly delivers ROI in security compliance, streamlines patch management, reduces errors, and cuts costs with efficiency.
Sentiment score
2.6
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete's ROI is rated highly by some, yet high costs make benefits assessment challenging for others.
They appreciate the rich telemetry data from the solution, as it provides in-depth threat identification.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks helps to reduce my total cost of ownership significantly.
Detection and Response Consultant at Inovasys
In Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, most of the remediation is automated and the accuracy is quite good.
Network Security Engineer at Cyberwell Solution
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Cortex XDR is praised for technical support and responsiveness, despite occasional delays and varying regional support quality.
Sentiment score
7.5
BigFix support is knowledgeable but varies; improved under HCL with valued community resources and direct engineer access.
Sentiment score
3.3
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete receives mixed feedback, with praise for efficiency but concerns about response times and support consistency.
The technical support from Palo Alto deserves a mark of ten because they reach out within an hour whenever assistance is needed.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
There is no back and forth, and they know what we are asking for and come up with the best resolution for a solution.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
If any of these services are missed, it becomes a problem in terms of support tickets, follow-up, or special configuration that needs to be done in the system.
Chief of IT Architecture at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
On a scale from one to ten, with ten being the highest quality, enterprise support provides timely responses, typically within four to eight hours.
Technical Director at SYSTEX
Technical support from HCL is satisfactory unless there are customization requirements.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
Whenever we need any kind of support, the BigFix team is present and available.
Solution Sales Specialist at TD SYNNEX
I don't know the current situation with Broadcom, however, it was good when I was involved.
Information Security Engineer at M.Tech
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR scales well for different organizations, but may be costly for small enterprises despite its cloud-based efficiency.
Sentiment score
5.5
BigFix efficiently manages large-scale endpoints with minimal issues, praised for scalability, flexibility, and ease of setup.
Sentiment score
6.4
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete displays strong scalability, though opinions vary on license challenges and support in different environments.
You can onboard 10,000 endpoints in just hours, which demonstrates the excellent scalability of this product.
Assistant Security Architect at Cloudnomics
Activating the newly purchased licenses is instantaneous, allowing installations without adjustments since it's cloud-based.
Junior Security Analyst at ITSEC Asia
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks can be expanded anytime by purchasing another license without any issues related to scalability.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
It supports approximately two to three hundred thousand endpoints, demonstrating significant scalability capabilities.
Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
BigFix requires some minimum configuration requirements.
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is highly stable, resolving early issues and delivering consistent, reliable performance with minimal downtime.
Sentiment score
6.9
BigFix is highly reliable and stable, effectively handling tasks with minimal issues, praised for its robustness in endpoint management.
Sentiment score
8.0
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete is reliable and stable, though new releases may introduce bugs, earning high user satisfaction.
Cortex remains fast and responsive, even with increasing data and alerts.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The thresholds we've seen on our firewall boxes at some instances reached 80% to 85%, but even at that level of utilization, we don't observe any latency or any issues reported with respect to accessing the application.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks can be trusted completely.
Soc Analyst at Softcell Technologies Limited
Mac OS upgrades would break them before new versions were available.
Lead of IT at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR needs better integration, user interface, automation, and competitive pricing, along with reduced performance issues and clearer features.
BigFix requires improvements in speed, ease of use, automation, integration, pricing, and network efficiency for optimal user satisfaction.
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete requires enhancements in installation, interface, mobility, security features, support, scalability, pricing, and integration.
Improving reporting and dashboard customization, along with the addition of real-time and exportable reports, would help SOC teams greatly.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The inclusion of this feature would allow the application of DLP policies alongside antivirus policies via a single agent and console, making it more competitive as other OEMs often offer DLP solutions as part of their antivirus products.
Pre Sales Architect at network techlab
If the per GB data could be provided at a certain level free of cost or at the same cost which the customer is taking for the entire bundle, that would be better.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
Building a management console is quick and simple, taking only one to two hours for setup.
Technical Director at SYSTEX
The problem was related to the hardware configuration and hardware specifications.
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
In addition to reporting improvements, there should be a feature for application control to allow or disallow certain applications from being executed on endpoints.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
The mobile device management was not unified with the other endpoint management, creating structural issues.
Lead of IT at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
They could improve the user interface.
Information Security Engineer at M.Tech
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR's pricing is seen as reasonable for its advanced capabilities, though setup costs can be perceived as high.
BigFix costs $30-$80 per endpoint annually, with prices varying by modules and additional database licenses.
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete pricing varies, seen as cost-effective by some but expensive due to features and complex renewals.
The pricing on SentinelOne is far more reasonable and cheaper than Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would say it is definitely not a cheap product, considering how mature it is and how scalable all Palo Alto products are together.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Compared to CrowdStrike, which is very costly, and SentinelOne, which is also very costly, Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is a medium cost-efficient solution.
Soc Analyst at Softcell Technologies Limited
The pricing is pretty good and now follows a subscription model similar to SolarWinds, making it easier for customers to subscribe and unsubscribe.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
I rate the price for BigFix as medium, neither low nor high.
Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR enhances security with AI-driven analytics, user-friendly management, cloud deployment, and comprehensive threat response features.
BigFix offers robust patch management, compliance, and integration with scanners, excelling in scalability, customizability, and multi-platform support.
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete delivers advanced protection and governance with features like threat hunting, sandboxing, and customizable performance.
It incorporates AI for normal behavior detection, distinguishing unusual operations.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
The product provides automation responses in case of a threat attack, severity assessments, centralized manageability, and comprehensive compliance features, resulting in reduced costs.
Pre Sales Architect at network techlab
It includes machine learning to easily analyze data and detect complex threats across endpoints, networks, or clouds.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
Patching is the most preferable feature that users choose BigFix for, making it a very important component.
Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The BigFix features that have proven most effective include inventory, software delivery, software distribution, software catalog, and both software and hardware management.
Technical Director at SYSTEX
I use this mainly to capture inventory for IBM products, and as BigFix was part of IBM, it gets easily integrated with IBM solutions.
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
I have both the antivirus and EDR features constantly, allowing my team's customers to conduct detailed analyses of where attacks have occurred or if any malicious files are present, which devices or files have been targeted.
Information Security Engineer at M.Tech
Fortinet Endpoint Protection provides more features compared to other solutions.
Lead of IT at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
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Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (4th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
BigFix
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
24th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (10th), Patch Management (7th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (10th), Autonomous Endpoint Management (5th)
Symantec Endpoint Security ...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
43rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.9%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BigFix is 1.7%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security Complete is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks3.9%
BigFix1.7%
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete0.7%
Other93.7%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Gained full visibility and streamlined threat detection through behavior-based insights and AI integration
Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth. We have fine-tuned our security policies and allowed different levels of policies to get rid of those false positives. Currently, we are getting a fairly good amount of incidents that are not false positives or benign, but actionable items. The process is streamlined. In the initial days, the operations used to get involved in a lot of benign and other activities, but now the process is streamlined. We are leveraging the auto-detection and remediation plans. The operations teams are now more involved in other business roles as well, not just looking into the logs and fetching out what's happening there. They have fixed a lot of things. Initially, they didn't have IAC code drift detection, cloud posture management, or security posture management, but they have those now. They purchased different vendors and did a merger with that. They have now Prisma Cloud that gets integrated and now they are working with Cortex Cloud. Everything that was negative has now been addressed, and the product altogether looks to be in a very better and mature shape now. Currently, it's more or less detecting the workloads with AI-based best practices. Since most organizations are consuming AI agents and other things, we are looking forward to seeing what other feature enhancements Palo Alto can support in that.
InderjeetSingh4 - PeerSpot reviewer
Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
End-to-end automation has simplified patching and software deployment across thousands of servers
There is one feature in BigFix called the automation patch policy that requires enhancement. When an action is initiated through the patch policy, it appears on the console but arrives in chunks. When targeting hundreds of servers from the patch policy, the actions come in chunks such as ten out of six, ten out of nine, or ten out of fifteen. This fragmented approach creates a significant challenge for the patching team to monitor the action status. I would recommend that the development team provide a single action or one to two actions instead of multiple actions requiring individual monitoring. A broad status update could be provided to the client indicating the overall progress of the patch policy implementation rather than requiring monitoring of every individual action. This would reduce the bandwidth required by the team to track multiple actions on the console.
PetriRajama - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead of IT at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Has provided strong security foundations but struggles with integration and ongoing compatibility issues
It had its problems. They were rebuilding it while having the old functionality and new functionality layered on top of each other. They were migrating the functionalities to the new solution, which caused significant problems. The mobile device management was not unified with the other endpoint management, creating structural issues.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Construction Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise54
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise68
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. ...
Comparing CrowdStrike Falcon to Cortex XDR (Palo Alto)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions th...
How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface,...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BigFix?
I rate the price for BigFix as medium, neither low nor high.
What needs improvement with BigFix?
There is one feature in BigFix called the automation patch policy that requires enhancement. When an action is initia...
What is your primary use case for BigFix?
My current use case involves being one of the products and one of the clients implementing this tool.
What needs improvement with Symantec Endpoint Security Complete?
It had its problems. They were rebuilding it while having the old functionality and new functionality layered on top ...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Endpoint Security Complete?
It's the network side of things. They have the Fortinet SASE network protection, which is ideal for us because most o...
What advice do you have for others considering Symantec Endpoint Security Complete?
I have worked with this solution. From a security perspective, my understanding is that it remains in the top five so...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
Tivoli Endpoint Manager
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
US Foods, Penn State, St Vincent's Health US Foods, Sabadell Bank, SunTrust, Australia Sydney, Stemac, Capgemini, WNS Global Services, Jebsen & Jessen, CenterBeam, Strauss, Christian Hospital Centre, Brit Insurance, Career Education Corporation
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about BigFix vs. Symantec Endpoint Security Complete and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.